If this review was done last year, I would have little problem recommending the Gigabyte X700 Pro. In point of fact, I recommended the X700 Pro when it was announced, as the card outperformed the best card of the year before, the 9800XT. ATI has replaced the X700 Pro in their lineup with the X800 for the same price, theoretically, making the X700 Pro a card without a market if you go by MSRP. Realistically, however, the X800 is selling for almost $50 more online, making a different market for the card. Online the Gigabyte GV-RX70P256V is available for $199 on Pricewatch. At this price point, the competition is the NVIDIA GEFORCE 6600GT.
One thing about ATI cards is their image quality when antialiasing and anisotropic filtering is second to none. AA and AF are important to me as a reviewer. After all, most people purchasing a video card today in this price range need more than just medium resolutions and settings. ATI is scheduled to release their next generation R520 architecture later this year. Assuming the rumors are true, this will bring ATI into Shader Model 3.0 and on the .09um process. I hope that ATI will replace the X700 and X800 cards with mid-range parts that outperform and have more features than the current cards. We will have to wait and see how the rest of the year works out.
